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Russians vs North Americans

Americans expect things to go well and become upset when they don't. Russians expect things to go poorly and have learned to live with misfortune. The American habit of smiling all the time can get on the nerves of some Russians.
The assumption that "everyone steals" has erased the nation's sense of right and wrong. Many involved in bribery and embezzlement see it as the only way to survive. They feel justified since, "everyone else is doing it." The police are notorious for corrupt behaviour. While Americans generally trust "the law," Russians have a tremendous distrust of government, police and the military.
Soviet citizens were sentenced for counterrevolution activity or crimes against the state from 1930 to 1953. The KGB openly admits that 786,000 were shot to death in those 23 years.
The law in Russia has served to protect the state and the community rather than the individual. The leaders had the tradition of being above the law (Definition of a third world country).
Students in russia are told what the answer is, not why the answer is what it is. "How did you come to that answer?" is not a question a Russian teacher would ask. It is simply right or wrong. Two plus two is four. The reason why is immaterial.
Time is money to Americans, and punctuality a virtue. Meetings are expected to start on time, and work under pressure of the clock is a challenge routinely accepted. To Russians, with their agricultural heritage, time is like the seasons - a time for sowing and a time for reaping, and a time for doing little in between.
Russians disrespect Americans as people but generally bear no ill will toward them.
Things seldom go as planned with Russians. They often say, "In principle, it can be done," but in practice, it may be another matter.

In my opinion things are not so simple.
I consider MOB scamming the big time version of spam.
Spam is typically a western product.
What is that?
Mostly redundant, fancy, enticing ads about how to turn $100 into $100000 using some "secret forex trading scheme"; how to "enlarge your pen!s"; about how "this couple saved $40000 refinancing the third time this year", etc.
What's more ridiculous than this?
Hell, get into debt upto your eyeballs, then "save" entering other debt schemes to pay the first back...and SAVE?!

As well, the sick originators & first perpetrators of the best selling scam lies are... WESTERN AGENCIES.
Then of course you've thousands of Igor, Boris, Pavel and Irina joining the fun.
Just days ago i could read on a big junk network agency's website flat lies like:If you only make $800 a month and own a dishwasher you can make any FSU princess happy because they have no tap water, live in cartonbox buildings and their average salary is $20 a month

You can have a penthouse pet even if you're 70 & wearing diapers. FSU women love older men and consider huge age gaps an insurance against drinking & bad habits, which cause depopulation among FSU men, mostly jobless, violent drunkards

Etc.

Now i don't need to be a genius to guess why so many independent scammers write canned letters about just that...who did teach them the rhymes?
Equally, i don't need to be a genius to know the whole pink glasses picture is your next "herbal viagra" or "secret forex trading scheme".

Sure, they've learnt the worst from the west, but it is because it pays good dividends.
In my opinion the whole MOB thing is declining.
Divorces start to increasingly make it to the news; bickering about agencies not keeping their promises abounds; court cases start to appear; more&more men who got scammed voice their opinion, thus preventing many more men from falling victims...while years ago nobody was talking about scams.

Sure, you'll always have a sucker falling for the next "secret forex scheme" or "herbal viagra"...such is life.
Sending no money and having a realistic approach to oneself is the secret.

As an American who has traveled to Russia and Ukraine 20 times since 1999 I can say this. I have experienced some of the most ass backward ways of thinking immaginable. Many things that should be normal and simple by western standards, become difficult and complicated because of the mentality.
Russians can be some of the most hard-headed people to deal with. Even the Russians that I know here in America are like this. When they make up their mind's about something, whether right or wrong, there is no changing it.
There is a story that an American/Russian friend of mine tells about a shoe factory in the 1970's somewhere in western Russia. Of course, during those socialistic times, the state provided all of the necessities of life. Food, clothing, medicine, housing, etc.
The shoe factory produced thousands of pairs of shoes everyday that were distributed to the general population throughout western Russia.
One day at the factory, the machine that produced left shoes for men became broken. Since the parts that were needed to repair the machine were not available, the factory continued to distribute men's shoes but with two right shoes. They doubled the production of right shoes.
It was several weeks before the machine was repaired and many thousands of pairs of men's shoes had been distributed with two right shoes. No one seemed to care and soon there were alot on men wearing right shoes on their left foot. Somehow, all of these defective pairs of shoes eventually ended up in a couple of areas in western Russia and after awhile all of the men for about two years wore right shoes on their left foot.
It became normal and accepted and nobody cared. There are many other stories similar to this where the Russian people would just accept anything that the state considered normal.
And they think that Americans are dumb???
HaHa, give me a break!!!!

A man's mind, streched by a new idea, will never re-gain it's original dimension.

THAT IS REALLY WONDERFUL....,
It's true, they think that the Americans are dumb... Jeeeezzzzzz, gimme a friggen break.
Sonar, it seems you have a lot of experience with the slavic people. The absolutely true story that you said is 100% right... I haven't heard it before but I know they're stubborn....
Although I am not originally North American, I think that it is a real mistake to compare the Americans to the russians... it is just unfair for the americans to go backwards this much..
As everybody mentions here on this forum, North America has also issues but these issues are on an individual basis...

For a couple of years I am doing business in East Europe.
In West Europe buying products and obtaining samples is no problem, manufacturers are happy to get in contact with a potential customer.
Your attention is more focused on marketing and sales.
In East Europe it works different, companies are hardly interested because they produce for local markets and export goes to other East European countries.
Free samples, forget it!!
Customer satisfaction? Never heard of it!!

Most of what the first poster says fall in the class of what is termed "sweeping generalizations." I know of many hard-working, commonsense driven Russians both in the US and in Russia. They understand the constraints of working within their absurd, Kafkaesque bureaucracy and yet remain personally optimistic and generally happy.

The story about two right shoes sounds a bit like urban legend. In fact, if you google the phrase, "two right shoes" you find this story is repeated in many other countries, including the US.

well, government looks alike [u]everywhere.
In america the recent fact of Louisiana shows that there are three pairs of right shoes...one fatly paid bureaucrat was sending emails about his clothes & other idiocies, while the "chief of the free world" was busy having a beer i guess. Nobody cared enough & they were in trouble. We had a similar case years ago here. The flooding destroyed a region nearby here...nobody did anything...in the end -that is a joke- a minister from a so-called "secessionist/racist" party hired a five star hotel as "headquarters" for big fatly paid "wog" bureaucrats.
Thank god he was a "racist"...otherwise what, Trump Plaza?
Did people get rescued in time?
Did they get repaid?
No way.
And here we had "government" &civil codes when in Britain or in america you had only natives picking berries.
Results are equally third-worldish.
I read the indian government actually spends 30 or 40$ to deliver $10 in welfare to a citizen.
First the japanese, then korea; now even Malaysia & Pakistan are ripping our a$$ in shreds with superior products at 1/10 the cost...
The west is the other half of the Berlin wall charade yet to fall.

What happenned in the aftermath of the hurricane in New Orleans, Louisianna has nothing to do with racism as many negro racists would have you believe. I, myself, have had my house flooded during hurricanes and yet did not have a helicopter land on my roof to rescue me. These once poor lazy slob crack heads, who have lived on government money for the majority of their lives, will soon have free new homes provided by tax payer money. I lost everything, including my house, due to terrorism on 9-11, I did not get government assistance. The best thing that could have happenned was dropping a nerve agent inside the super bowl arena while the pigs were crapping and pissing all over it.

as for Russia vs N America : if you're white, to get to N America, you have to do it legally, unlike the mexicans, so. Americans, asians, caribes and afroaustrapithicuses. y'all have a happy Kwanza now. SS

The problem with New Orleans had nothing to do with racism. It's the lack of one taking care of their family and themselves. These people chose to stay even though they were warned 3 to 4 days ahead of time to leave. So when they don't leave and the storm hits, they expect immediate salvation by the government. The US is becoming like the socialist countries of Europe where people can not survive on their own anymore and expect the government to give them everything they want. What makes America great is not it's military might, or it's wealth, but the will of the people to take control of their own lives and to make it a better place to live for future generations, and not depend on the government to take care of them when disasters strike. When disasters strike, strangers, neighbors and others will take care of those who are affected. We don't expect, nor do we want our government sticking it's nose in everything we do. Unfortunately that mentality is changing, and now more and more, people expect the government to hand them money when a disaster hits. Most of the world think of their governments as a seperate entity that is to take care of them and protect them. We in America still believe the government is "We the People" and not a seperate entity, so therefore We are the government, and We will decide which direction the nation moves, and not a "seperate" government. This is what confuses most of the world as they truly do not understand our way of life.